It is common practice in the manufacture of many electrical parts such as relays, timers for appliances, and similar devices to provide terminal tabs for making electrical connections to the electrical device. The terminal tabs are usually disposed in parallel spaced apart planes and are fairly close to each other. A connector for connecting wires to the terminal tabs must therefore have contained in its housing contact terminals which will mate with the terminal tabs and which ae spaced apart by the same distances as are the terminal tabs on the electrical device. Application Ser. No. 485,763 filed Apr. 18, 1983 shows an electrical terminal having a conductor-receiving portion at one end and a mating portion at the other end for engagement with terminal tabs in aligned spaced apart planes as described above. The conductor-receiving portion comprises spaced apart parallel plates connected to each other and having aligned wire-receiving slots so that a wire can be connected to the terminal by moving the wire laterally of its axis and into the aligned slots. The mating or contact portion of the terminal comprises two pairs of contact spring arms which are arranged such that they be mated with a terminal tab that is in a plane that extends parallel to a wire which has been connected to the conductor-receiving portion of the terminal. The conductor-receiving portion is connected to the contact portion by a relatively complex transition section which is produced by bending an extension of each of the plate-like members into a U-shape with compound surfaces of continuously changing radius extending between the conductor-receiving portion and the contact portion of the terminal.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of a terminal of the general type shown in Application Ser. No. 485,763 but which has an improved transition section and which can be manufactured by relatively simple and straightforward stamping and forming operations.
A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a stamped and formed electrical terminal of the type comprising a conductor-receiving portion and a contact portion. The conductor-receiving portion comprises first and second aligned flat plate-like members which are connected to each other, the plate-like members having aligned conductor-receiving slots so that a conductor can be moved laterally of its axis and into the conductor-receiving slots. The contact portion comprises first and second pairs of contact arms, the first pair of contact arms extending from the first plate-like member and the second pair of contact arms extending from the second plate-like member, and first and second transition sections between the first and second plate-like members and the first and second pairs of contact arms respectively. The terminal is characterized in that each transition section is flat and is inclined from its respective plate-like member towards a medial plane that is parallel to, and between, the first and second plate-like members, each transition section having convergently tapered side edges. First and second U-shaped sections are provided which extend from the first and second transition sections. Each U-shaped section comprises a web and sidewalls, the web of each U-shaped section extending from its associated transition section. The webs are on each side of the medical plane and the sidewalls extend in opposite directions away from the medial plane. The first and second pairs of contact arms extend from the sidewalls of the first and second U-shaped sections, the arms of each pair of contact arms having free ends and having opposed contact zones on their free ends so that a terminal tab can be inserted between the contact arms of the first and second pairs of contact arms and the terminal tab will be in the medial plane.
A further embodiment is characterized in that the two arms of each pair of contact arms extend convergently towards each other and the contact zones are against each other. In accordance with a further embodiment the web of each of the U-shaped sections is flat and the sidewalls extend normally from the side edges of the web.